for Alice Notley

Dear Artist

                  How it must be

         strange to find

                                 these uncanny resemblances

in your children

                          "you & you & you" all around

and in each a little particle of "me"

             colors, touches, and thoughts

                                                             of a new person

like all the things of your life

                                        the events placed gently

into the form of the works

          angels, moves, early light

                                                   and the eternal orange

juice

        the season when refrigerators bump up the stairs

Bob Dylan (a good friend)

                                           and Sam Cooke

All this flies through my mind

                  as the leaves scatter before me

                                                   across the stones

as I walk to school

                              the words of my work

                                                               all over my notebooks

Words move through my head:

                      descent, succession, kinship, marriage

                                         as I share a kiss

over the pastries

                           basement coffeeshop

I look for my coincidences in books, music

faces

        and visions of the everyday

                                                     For me as for you

Perception and ardor are the sweet facts

and dear America

                             the background to your easy grace